13 July 2025

Setting the standard: the global efforts behind plant health protection

How international standards keep pests at bay and trade flowing across borders

Protecting plant health is critical to feeding the world. Healthy crops are the foundation of food security, nutrition, livelihoods and sustainable trade. That’s why the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations or FAO, through the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), works with countries to develop and implement plant health standards. These International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPMs) are science-based standards that prevent the spread of pests and protect the world’s food systems.

In 1881, five European countries came together to combat a tiny pest wreaking havoc on vineyards: Grape phylloxera. That collaboration planted the seed for what would eventually become a global framework to protect plants and secure the trade and livelihoods tied to them. Today, that framework is the IPPC, hosted by FAO, and its seemingly inconspicuous but powerful tools: the ISPMs.